(I)legal gold: structural determination on Amazonian countries

Abstract

The Amazon is socioeconomically strategic with geopolitical relevance, due to its large mineral deposits, antagonistic interests converge. (Illegal) gold is untraceable and attracts organized crime that smuggles and launders it. The State legalizes it. It is legitimized by discursive innovations, giving it the appearance of aid from rich countries to poor contaminating countries. Hundreds of tons of gold are looted annually, meeting market imperatives. The largest refineries in the world and the LBMA invest heavily in (il)legal production and in socially responsible projects, which clean up their image and cloud the contradiction, transferring the responsibility for contamination to the looted countries and justifying accumulation through spoliation. Artisanal mining/mining dumps mercury into the environment supported by the right to contaminate, producing contamination paradises with serious consequences for Original and Traditional Peoples. This is a documentary research with secondary data that illustrates part of the reality in Amazonian countries.